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Bit disappointed with the poll - I came here to vote Coffey.
This might be long if I have time - apologies.
I went to the hospital twice in two weeks this year and it wasn't bad but there were a few odd things that went on. The operation part is fine - get knocked out, wake up, lie in bed. The fasting before hand, two weeks in a row, plus the internal flushing were much worse.
I was spun out by how many sheets of name labels they had for me, looked like they are paranoid of getting patients mixed up which made me more nervous.
Before I went I had to pre-enrol online. When I got there we went through it again in person. The second time I pre-enrolled, they called me at home AND we went through it again in person.
They asked me why I was there even though they have a whole folder of info on me. When I was surprised that they didn't know they said the doctors book the thing and the hospital doesn't always know what for. So you want me to recite medical terms for you? I just said a lot of "you know, a blah blah type thingy". I never memorized all the technical terms and it made me worried that they didn't know what was going on.
On the first visit they warned me about memory loss after the anesthetic. During the second visit they asked me questions about what happened after the first visit. "You don't remember someone talking to you about blah blah....".
At surgery they put my IV line in the easiest way for them but the worse way for recovery. If I moved at all in bed the line would fold in half and cut off the supply which would make the machine beep incessantly. I watched the nurses reset it so many times I learnt how to work the machine myself. Better then the grumpy nurses at 3am who look like I'm bothering them with my requests to fix my medicine.
What really got me though was my initial consultation with the doctor to find out what was going on and what I needed to do. The doctor wasn't clear at all on what was going to happen but the receptionist explained more to me. She said you'll go this first time, everything will probably be fixed but there might be a second hospital visit a week later. Turns out the first visit was just a pre-op, pre-check thing and the second visit was definitely happening and that's when the actual operation would be. I didn't figure this out until after the first visit was so short.
I kept thinking, oh man Keith would turn this into a podcast, and listened to KATG to get me through the sleepless night. I can't sleep on my back and if i rolled over the IV would go off.
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